Maybe the Phillies did the prudent thing after all. After holding on to ace pitcher Cole Hamels throughout the offseason, a few teams have found themselves with glaring holes. The Phillies may be in their best-ever situation now to trade pitcher Cole Hamels as teams emerge as possible suitors with injury after injury.
The Toronto Blue Jays lost top pitcher Marcus Strohman for the season. The Cardinals lost ace Adam Wainright for the season. And the Los Angeles Dodgers have lost two starters to injury in Brandon McCarthy for the season and Hyun-jin Ryu for an extended period of time. The Red Sox have seen many of their starters get absolutely shelled at various times. It is all coming to a head.
However, Bob Nightengale of USA Today has Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. finding more stress in his daughter's driving test than Hamels trade talks, but mentioned a few general managers by name:
So no anxiety of trading Cole Hamels, the ace of their franchise, and making absolutely certain they get the centrepieces to make the Phillies a contender again?
"I guarantee I'll get more grey hairs from my daughter driving,'' Amaro says, "than any trade talks with Mozeliak, Anthopoulos and Cherington.''
That is John Mozeliak, GM of the St. Louis Cardinals. That is Alex Anthopoulos GM of the Toronto Blue Jays. And that is Ben Cherington, GM of the Boston Red Sox.
They just happen to be the teams, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who could badly use Hamels.
Amaro's phone has started to ring with a little more frequency lately, as he had talks again Tuesday morning with an unidentified team, with some desperation starting to creep in.
In other words, the day he wrote the piece, after the Phillies finished their 11-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Nightengale has another interesting scenario: whichever team takes Cole Hamels could assume the contract of Jonathan Papelbon. But, the Phillies are willing to eat money:
And if a team isn't prepared to spend the money, Amaro revealed Tuesday that the Phillies would be willing to pay part of Hamels' salary. Hamels is owed $96 million through 2018, and possibly $110 million with his 2019 option.
"We are very open-minded," Amaro said. "We're not afraid to subsidize contracts. We never told a club that we would not absolutely subsidize his contract. That is not a realistic way to do business.
"If there's a deal to be made, and we have to subsidize part of it, we'll do it."
And yes, that includes packaging $13 million closer Jonathan Papelbon with Hamels.
In closing, Nightengale says the time is now:
Perhaps, the price tag for Hamels will actually drop.
Then again, maybe teams are only fooling themselves.
There happens to be a perfect time to get Hamels.
It's right now.
Will a team step up and decide they want to make a deal sooner than later? All of the aforementioned teams are struggling to fill innings. Hamels would be able to do plenty of that, but there is a price to pay. As desperation rises, maybe the Phillies are going to get it.
